The barrage of quick-cuts and frantic zooms that define Edgar Wright’s directorial style makes it difficult to focus on subtle details. That is, unless you’re a huge geek with enough patience to try to catch the half millisecond of focused tight shots in sequences like this one from Shaun of the Dead:
The entire film is clearly a tender homage to zombie flicks, but there are homages even within the homage. The earliest one is the name of Shaun’s employer, Foree Electric (a tiny British version of Best Buy). Its namesake is the actor who played the hero in George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead – Ken Foree.
Next is Fulci’s, which is referred to in the film as “the place that does all the fish”. When Shaun hastily flips through the phone book to make last-minute reservations for he and his lady, the listing in the phone book shows Fulci’s (for a nanosecond) advertised as “The place that does all the fish”. The restaurant’s name is a nod to Lucio Fulci, an Italian horror director known as “The Godfather of Gore”.
Lastly we have Landis Supermarket, the employer of Shaun’s first bona fide zombie kill. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that this is a reference to John Landis, best know for directing An American Werewolf in London and the video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
It’s a wise choice not to allow your inside jokes to interfere with the narrative, which is why Wright doesn’t make a big fuss about ensuring the audience spots the tuckerization. Shaun of the Dead is a film written and directed by geeks, and made for an audience of geeks. He knew damn well that one of us would stay up until 1am on a work night pairing screencaps with reference photos.
Time for bed.
